For this family, grilled cheese and hot chocolate equal remembering Grandpa on Veterans Day

EDITOR’S NOTE: WNLP contributor Mike Kellems, who photographed South Central School’s Veterans Day ceremony last week, passed along information about an essay read by elementary student Evia Vandercar. With Principal Ben Anderson’s help, we obtained a copy of the essay and photos of Evia. Enjoy her account of her family’s special Veterans Day tradition.

Veterans Day is important to me because it is one of the days of the year where we get to honor our amazing veterans. They have done more than enough for us.
It means a lot to me on Veterans Day because my Grandpa Bob was in World War II. He was enslaved in a POW camp for 6 months. May 9th, 1945, all of the people that were enslaved had their first home-cooked meal of hot chocolate and grilled cheese. That was their first

Evia at South Central.

home-cooked meal in 6 months. They were fed very little at the POW camp. So every May 9th we have hot chocolate and grilled cheese for dinner.
Veterans Day means a lot to me because our heroes fought and many died for our freedom. They were willing to leave their families to keep our country free. They were and are still very brave to do this for us.